Man sues church for damages following split with wife

Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 04:42 PM.

GRAHAM — A Snow Camp man is suing a church for personal injury damages, claiming the congregation and its pastor stole his wife of 28 years — and his financial stability — away from him.

Warren J. Pegram, of Snow Camp, filed the suit Nov. 8 against the Cane Creek Meeting of the Society of Friends. In the suit, he claims the Quaker congregation knowingly allowed its pastor to develop a relationship with his wife, Shyrlynn Pate Pegram, and encouraged her to leave him in early 2012.

The suit asks for a jury trial and judgment of $180,000 in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

In a response filed Jan 14, the church denies the allegations and motioned to have the suit thrown out for violating state statutes regarding alienation of affection litigation.

In the complaint, Warren Pegram says the pastor, Mark Tope, accompanied the couple on vacations at his wife’s request and spent time with her when he wasn’t present. The Pegrams were married 28 years before their split in February 2012.

“The defendant’s pastor made multiple visits to Plaintiff and his wife’s residence to play Wii games with them not at the invitation of the Plaintiff,” the suit states.

GRAHAM — A Snow Camp man is suing a church for personal injury damages, claiming the congregation and its pastor stole his wife of 28 years — and his financial stability — away from him.

Warren J. Pegram, of Snow Camp, filed the suit Nov. 8 against the Cane Creek Meeting of the Society of Friends. In the suit, he claims the Quaker congregation knowingly allowed its pastor to develop a relationship with his wife, Shyrlynn Pate Pegram, and encouraged her to leave him in early 2012.

The suit asks for a jury trial and judgment of $180,000 in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

In a response filed Jan 14, the church denies the allegations and motioned to have the suit thrown out for violating state statutes regarding alienation of affection litigation.

In the complaint, Warren Pegram says the pastor, Mark Tope, accompanied the couple on vacations at his wife’s request and spent time with her when he wasn’t present. The Pegrams were married 28 years before their split in February 2012.

“The defendant’s pastor made multiple visits to Plaintiff and his wife’s residence to play Wii games with them not at the invitation of the Plaintiff,” the suit states.

The congregation intentionally or negligently acted to interfere with the Pegrams’ marriage, in the end depriving Warren Pegram of his wife’s companionship and support. Some church members helped her move out. In March 2012, the church council allegedly defended the actions of congregants who helped her move out.

The church’s actions “in defending the destruction” of the marriage deprived Warren Pegram “of much of his support in his declining years” and caused “emotional and physical distress … to the extent that he has not been able to properly perform in a customary manner and his professional practice as a retired engineer has suffered …,” the suit says.

The Cane Creek Meeting of the Society of Friends denied the allegations and made a motion to dismiss the case in the Jan. 14 response prepared by attorney Keith Whited.

Whited classifies Warren Pegram’s action as an alienation of affection suit and asks for sanctions against Pegram for “violation of law,” claiming Pegram’s suit violates North Carolina law. The response cites a statute that says alienation of affection suits can only be brought against an individual, not a group.

Pegram said the suit isn’t about alienation of affection but about “negligence and personal injury.”

“They put a financial burden on me. She was responsible for 60 percent of the household income,” Warren Pegram said. “It is for personal injury because it took the action of the church … to break up a marriage. It had to be church influence. The event of her moving out was all them. I was there. I saw them.”

Whited was unable to be reached Tuesday for further comment about the case.

In a Dec. 17 filing, noting an extension to respond to the complaint, Warren Pegram requested “a list of members who were involved in removing property in support of plaintiff’s wife [sic] abandonment of marital property.”

The Jan. 14 response didn’t include a list of congregants and Warren Pegram said he hadn’t received it separately.

A judge will hear the defendants’ motion to dismiss Feb. 4 in Alamance County Civil Superior Court.

Otherwise, the suit is set for trial Feb. 25 in Alamance County Civil Superior Court. According to the court calendar, Alamance County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Rob Johnson will preside over the trial.